Retired General Calls For US Army On Streets To Restore Civil Order

‘A retired lieutenant general appeared on CNN with Anderson Cooper Tuesday night and advocated putting active duty soldiers on the streets of Ferguson and elsewhere to help restore law and order in the wake of a second night of looting and violence.

Gen. Russel L. Honoré, who was the commander of Joint Task Force Katrina across the Gulf Coast, was asked his opinion on how police should respond to protesters and violent agitators in Ferguson and major cities such as Los Angeles following the trouble related to the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown case.

“I think police are in the city unlike Ferguson and St. Louis that have mobilized National Guard and backup troops, they’re dealing with shift officers who are probably working overtime,” Honoré said.

“They’re going to have it to change their game unless they can come to a political conclusion that says, hey, we’re going to do this in terms of a federal review of procedures…” he added, advocating the creation of a “blue ribbon panel” to institute statewide and nationwide measures to deal with civil disobedience.

“I’m going to tell you this, Anderson,” the General continued, “…if St. Louis can’t control this, you know what the next step is and it’s called the Insurrection Act, the same thing they did in Los Angeles.” he said, referring to the deployment of troops during the 1992 LA riots.

“We’re nowhere near that now, but people might want to look at that because that is a statute that’s designed if local authorities cannot control and provide civil law inside their cities.” Honoré said.

The Insurrection Act, which dates back to 1807, allows for the President of the United States to deploy troops within the country to quell lawlessness, insurrection and rebellion.

It is supposedly reserved for times when the responses to such events by state and local governments are unsuccessful. It allows for the Posse Comitatus Act, which forbids the use of the Army or the Air Force for domestic law enforcement, to be circumnavigated.

“What is broken in our governance that we can’t handle simple operations?” Honoré questioned during the interview.

“Police in London must be shaking their heads in amazement to how we respond to simple civil disobedience in the United States.” Honoré concluded.

And no doubt police in London, and everyone else for that matter would be shaking their heads should active duty soldiers be called in to deal with pockets of looters and criminals.